Outspoken Channel 10 presenter Waleed Aly has blasted the NRL following a tumultuous year of off-field drama that took attention away from the game itself.
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Aly spoke about his sporting lowlights in 2017 on the ABC program Offsiders and took aim at the controversies that made headlines for all the wrong reasons.
The Project host launched his first missiles at the Gold Coast Titans and their handling of Jarryd Hayne.
Hayne dramatically exited to club to reunite with his old club Parramatta just months after playing a major role in Neil Henry's sacking from the coaching staff.
“I was going to start with Jarryd Hayne and his year and the fact he had a poor year for his club with the Titans, the fact that he had a poor year for NSW and the Titans ended up sacking Neil Henry in part to try and keep him and then he leaves anyway and goes to Parramatta,” Aly said.
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It wasn't the only drama that riled up Aly as he continued his attack.
He went on to criticise the flaws of the player transfer market, using the Tigers' mess - where Mitch Moses, Aaron Woods and James Tedeco all departed the club - to get his message across.
“The low here is the off-field season the NRL had generally,” Aly said.
“The constant rumours around player movement that meant no one seemed to care what was happening in the season in front of them and only cared about what was to come.
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“Aaron Woods’ movement, Mitchell Moses moving mid-season and having just beaten Parramatta for Wests Tigers and then joking about not knowing which sheds he was going to go to after the game was extraordinary.”
The Bulldogs had their time in the Aly's spotlight as he wasn't impressed with how Des Hasler exited the club.
Then Jesse Bromwich and Kevin Proctor became a target after their Anzac Test cocaine scandal, alongside Cronulla chairman Damian Keogh who was caught in possession of the same illicit drug.
“The Des Hasler situation is just absurd that we were told mid-year he had a new contract and now they’re saying it wasn’t a contract at all so that’s how they could sack him,” Aly said.
“There was all the cocaine possession stuff that happened on rep weekend with Jesse Bromwich and Kevin Proctor, Damian Keogh at the Cronulla Sharks — it just went on and on.
“And then to cap the year off we hear about the Manly salary cap breach. This is a terrible, terrible off-field year.”
Replies
The lowlight of Australian television was actually Waleed Aly and the Project itself. I have never witnessed such an agenda driven, lefty point of view show in the history of Australian television. And i watch my fair share of ABC! Shit individual, shit show!
Onya Nidgie!
I guess from the comments so far that people think the issues raised by Waleed were NRL highlights??
Waleed correctly notes some lowlights, though his fact checking is suspect (Eels didn’t lose to Tigers). Still, even for a Leftie pinko like me, Waleed is a bit of a blowhard tool. Maybe I can’t get over the fact he and his wife are total religious apologists (for Islam), leading me to be OK with shooting the messenger in this case!
This weasel is getting a bit like a poor mans Kyle Sandilands , just comments for a reaction to see his name in the papers and being labeled controversial. It’s like the new fame for the likes of him and that Yasmin cunt to stay relevant when half the country want you to shut the fuck up . Wish he’d blow himself up .
Hmm, its Christmas time and I have never seen the show, and am better informed now that i have read this about him. I hope he echoed the many positive sentiments about the Lindt Cafe memorial.....
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